Birgit Friedmann

Birgit Friedmann, born on 8 April 1960 in Königstein im Taunus, is a German former middle- and long-distance runner who raced the 1500 metres and 3000 metres for West Germany. She first appeared in a major championship at the 1977 European Athletics Junior Championships, where she finished seventh in the 1500 metres, and she won her first West German 3000 metres title in 1978. Her greatest season was 1980, when the new World Championships in Athletics, a two-event competition created because the 1980 Summer Olympics had no women's 3000 metres, made her the first ever women's 3000 metres world champion with a West German record of 8:48.05 minutes. She added further national titles, set a West German and world junior record of 8:43.65 minutes at the 1982 European Athletics Championships, where she placed fifth, and ended her athletics career that season. She was affiliated with Eintracht Frankfurt and later trained in sports medicine, becoming chief physician of the Sports Medicine Ward of the University Clinic in Heidelberg.